1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a solid-state image pickup device. In particular, the present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a solid-state image pickup device, the solid-state image pickup device including a cover member fixed to a photo detector.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, a reduction in the size and thickness of solid-state image pickup devices has been demanded, as digital cameras and mobile phones have been reduced in size and thickness.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-202152 discloses a solid-state image pickup device including a solid-state image pickup element chip and a cover member hermetically sealing the chip. The cover member, which is made of a transparent material, includes a frame portion that is integrally formed on edges of the lower surface of the cover member. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-134672 discloses a solid-state image pickup device including a solid-state image pickup element and a transparent substrate mounted thereon with a sealing agent.
These devices include microlenses formed on a photo detector side of the solid-state image pickup element, each of the microlenses corresponding to a pixel and being constituted by a convex portion having a height of several micrometers. In recent years, reduction in the area of a region outside the pixel region of the solid-state image pickup element has been demanded so as to reduce the size of the chip and the size of the package of the solid-state image pickup element. However, when a sealing agent is used to mount a transparent substrate on a solid-state image pickup element having microlenses on the photo detector side thereof, the sealing agent may contact the microlenses. If the sealing agent contacts the microlenses, the sealing agent may infiltrate into spaces between the convex portions that constitute the microlenses due to capillary action and may reach the pixel region, which may cause degradation of the optical properties.